Hearing resumes for teacher who 'branded' students

Saturday

Feb 28, 2009 at 12:01 AMFeb 28, 2009 at 4:12 AM

A boy whose parents are suing Mount Vernon schools because they say his science teacher burned a cross shape into his forearm never complained that he had been marked, another student who said he was a close friend testified today.

Zachary Dennis and his mother have said that eighth-grade science teacher John Freshwater held Zachary's arm down and burned a painful cross in his forearm during a science class last year.

But Corbin Heck, now a Mount Vernon High School freshman, testified that when he saw pictures of Zachary's arm recently he "sort of laughed and said this isn't what anybody else's arm looked like after the procedure. This is much more dramatic."

Freshwater's attorney called two of his former students today to testify in a hearing to determine whether the teacher should be fired. The hearing began last fall and has proceeded sporadically as attorneys for Freshwater and the school district have time in their schedules.

The school board has said it intends to fire Freshwater for burning Zachary Dennis, teaching religion in science classes and ignoring orders to stop doing so. State law allows Freshwater to have a hearing before he is fired.

Freshwater's attorney, R. Kelly Hamilton, first tried to submit affidavits from the teacher's former students, but the district's attorney, David Millstone, insisted that they testify so that he could cross-examine them.

Heck testified that he and more than half of his 21-student class agreed to be "zapped" by Freshwater with a high voltage, static electricity generator called a Tesla coil that usually is used in the classroom to test gasses.

Heck and Dennis were in the same classes throughout the 2007-08 school year and often had lunch together. Yet Dennis never complained about the burning or Freshwater as a teacher.

"It was nothing painful at all," said Heck, describing a tickling sensation as an "X" was marked on his arm.

Heck also testified that Freshwater never taught from the Bible or pressured students to believe anything other than evolution.

"I am a Christian and I would know if he did," Heck said.

In other testimony, Riley Swanson, 15, a high-school freshman, testified that Freshwater never initiated prayers during after-school Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings. Teachers are supposed to monitor, not lead or preach, at the meetings.